Osho′s Fourth Way

Try to understand this. You will not be able to know many things about
yourself if you do not meet people. If you do not meet anyone who abuses
you, then how can you know whether there is anger in you or not? If nobody
insults you, then you will think that you are without anger. You will know
the anger within you only when someone abuses you. So in a way, the person
who abused you has helped you to understand yourself; he has helped you to
realize that there is anger within you which was kept suppressed. That dark
corner came into light by his abuse.
But the sannyasin who runs away to the jungle does not get these
opportunities of understanding his inner characteristics because he is alone
there - because there there is no one to abuse him, no one to give him
respect, no one to entice him with money. No one gives him any
opportunity - he is alone there. Self-observation becomes difficult.
This world is the place where you can observe and understand yourself.
Otherwise God would have made innumerable jungles and would have kept one
person in one jungle. But you will have to admit that the divine is more
intelligent than you. Listen to him and be careful of these so-called saints
who are pretending to be more intelligent than even God. They are trying to
be very clever. They say that they will do sadhana, spiritual practice, in
the jungle.
But sadhana cannot be done in the jungle, it has to be in this world. You
will only vegetate in a jungle. But here in this world, thorns will prick
you the moment you walk on them. When you walk on these thorns and they are
not able to prick you, that means that now you have become capable of going
to the jungle - now if you want to, you can go. Then I will not stop you.
But then you yourself will say that there is no need to go to the jungle;
for me there is a jungle in the midst of this very crowd. Wisdom will be
born when you become mature.
How is wisdom born? it is born out of conflict, it is born by accepting the
challenges of life - by getting defeated, by falling down and by rising
again.
When you are abused a thousand times and you get angry a thousand times, a
moment comes when you will not become angry on being abused. The experience
of a thousand times will make you understand that there is no point in
burning with anger - somebody else is abusing, so why should I punish
myself for that? Then surely one day you will not react when somebody abuses
you, you will not get angry. That very day the thorn in you will become a
flower and you will be a changed person. The peace which you will experience
that day cannot be given to you by any jungle.
The peace of a jungle is a dead peace. If you become peaceful amidst these
abuses, then your peace is real peace. The peace of a jungle is like the
peace of a graveyard: the place is quiet and deserted, there is no one. It
is negative. If you become peaceful in this world, then it is positive. The
peace of the jungle is like death, and the peace of the world is very
lively.
I am telling you that if you want to attain the divine, then do not run
away. There can be no relationship of the divine with cowards or with
escapists. The only path is the path of courage. There is a possibility of
falling down in courage. There is no other alternative.
Have you ever noticed that the children of rich families are not very sharp
or very intelligent? They cannot be, because there is no challenge for them.
The intelligent children always belong to the families where they have to
struggle to attain even small things. The children of millionaires are
usually mediocre.

Henry Ford used to send his sons to polish boots on the roadsides. He used
to tell them to earn their own pocket-money like this. He was a billionaire,
and yet he made his sons polish the shoes of other people. His friends said
that this is a bit too much! He said, "I myself have earned money by
polishing shoes. People who were rich when I was a child have now become
beggars. I was like a beggar, but today I am the richest man in the world. I
do not want my children to become beggars, so I send them to polish shoes on
the road."

Certainly it was very intelligent of him, very clever of him to make his
sons work like this. Usually the children of rich people are lifeless,
absolute idiots - because there is no struggle and no challenge in their
lives. And if there is no struggle and there is too much security, they
become spineless. The spine becomes strong with struggle. The more the
struggle, the stronger the spine becomes.
So I do not ask you to run away from the world, I ask you to wake up from
this world. Sannyas is not an escape from the world, sannyas is a great
struggle and an awakening. And never avoid challenge; always face the
challenge till the work is completed. If you do not run away, then you will
wake up soon - because the energy which is spent in running away is turned
towards awakening. I am not asking you for the peace of the graveyard, I am
asking for the peace which one gets by one′s labor, by one′s effort. I am
for the positive peace which is attained by living to the maximum.